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Zachary Quinto Is "Disappointed" By George Takei's Gay Sulu Comments

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Zachary Quinto in 'Star Trek'

The current Mr. Spock says that he hopes Takei will be won over by the positive response to the news that Sulu will be revealed to be gay in 'Star Trek Beyond.'

Complaints about the sexuality of Star Trek's Hikaru Sulu following the news that the character will be revealed to be gay in this month's Star Trek Beyond are, as Spock would put it, illogical — indeed, Spock himself, Zachary Quinto, has come out in defense of the development in the wake of the disapproval of original Sulu George Takei.

Takei, who played Sulu from 1966 through 1991 in the original TV series and subsequent six movies, told The Hollywood Reporter that he thought the revelation that Sulu (John Cho) was gay was "really unfortunate." The actor, who is himself gay, said he had urged the filmmakers to "be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted."

Addressing this criticism, Quinto said, "I get it that he's has had his own personal journey and has his own personal relationship with this character but, you know, as we established in the first Star Trek film in 2009, we've created an alternate universe."

He continued, "My hope is that eventually George can be strengthened by the enormously positive response from especially young people who are heartened by and inspired by this really tasteful and beautiful portrayal of something that I think is gaining acceptance and inclusion in our societies across the world, and should be."

Quinto's point about the alternate Sulu echoes one made by Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg, who earlier issued a statement that read, in part, "At no point do we suggest that our Sulu was ever closeted. Why would he need to be? It just hasn’t come up before."